As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Certain information handling system, such as notebook computer systems, are designed to operate on battery power and/or power from a powered outlet. With respect to battery operation, end-user customers often desire long term operation on battery power. The length of battery operation in part depends upon the charge capacity of the battery. With respect to batteries that rely upon lithium-ion chemistry, one limitation to the charge capacity for such lithium-ion batteries is created by hazardous chemical shipping regulations. For example, in the United States of America, only a certain amount of lithium can be included in a single device before a hazardous material designation must be placed on the device. Currently, this limit is 8.0 grams or less of equivalent lithium content. This amount of lithium correlates to a battery life of about 96 Watt hours (Whr) for a current lithium-ion battery of the type commonly used in portable computer systems. And each battery must have protective circuitry. Due to these limitations, battery capacity for information handling systems is effectively capped. Thus, at the present time, a portable computer user is not able to expand the capacity of the portable battery as per the user's needs, and there are customer demands for the energy storage with higher than 96 Whr capacity, especially for ultra mobile computer devices.
To resolve this problem, some information handling systems, such as portable computers, are configured to allow use of two independent lithium-ion batteries or battery packs. In operation, such system first uses the power from one battery while isolating the second battery. Once that charge on the first battery has been depleted, the system then begins to use the power from second battery while isolating the first battery. In this way, the battery life of the portable information handling system can be extended beyond the 96 Whr limit created by the lithium shipping regulations. Another effort is an attempt to lobby governmental entities to increase the limit on lithium hazardous material designations. However, there is till need for efficient and cost-effective solutions to this battery capacity problem.